Yeovil Town slumped to their worst home performance of the 2014-15 season this afternoon, as they lost 0-3 at home to Rochdale at Huish Park. Once again defensive errors dominated the match, with a 6th minute corner from former Glover Michael Rose seeing Jack O'Connell getting an easy header to give the visitors the lead. Ten minutes later, Ian Henderson doubled the lead when Ryan Inniss miscleared a ball inside the box to give Dale a half time two goal lead. The same striker deservedly extended Rochdale's lead eight minutes into the second half when he converted a Matt Done cross, to leave Yeovil in 22nd place in the League One table, in an overall very poor performance.

The Glovers made two changes to their starting line-up with both right-flank players being dropped from the line-up. Seth Nana Twumasi had a slight knee problem that meant he was only fit enough to sit on the bench anyway, but Joel Grant was taken entirely out of the squad. Their places were taken by Jakub Sokolik at right-back and by Kevin Dawson on the right wing. On the bench AJ Leitch-Smith and James Berrett had recovered from injury, meaning that one player had to be left out of the squad entirely, with Grant the unlucky man.

The match started off in the worst way possible, with a sixth minute Michael Rose corner sparking the opening goal. Jakub Sokolik got his bearings wrong and lost Jack O'Connell as the ball came across with the Rochdale man having a comfortable header to put Dale 0-1 up. Set pieces were causing the Glovers back four plenty of problems in general, with O'Connell putting another header just wide, whilst Artur Krysiak made an excellent save from an Ian Henderson header.

Yeovil's chances throughout the match were few and far between, with Jordy Hiwula having a chance on goal blocked by excellent defending from Michael Rose who managed to push the ball out for a corner. Their efforts were not helped by Nathan Ralph going down injured 20 minutes into the match, and needing to be replaced by Sam Foley, having suffered some sort of upper leg injury after falling awkwardly. Foley took up his position on the left flank.

Just 16 minutes were on the clock when Rochdale doubled their lead, and again sloppy defending was at fault. A ball into the box saw Ryan Inniss only half clear the ball into the path of Ian Henderson and the former Colchester United striker fired home for a 0-2 scoreline. Henderson could have had another through a defensive error after Jakub Sokolik slipped but Artur Krysiak was one of the few Yeovil players shining, making an excellent save at his far post. Another Sokolik slip then saw Stephen Dawson break through and his cross saw Matt Done almost convert by the post, but the ball went wide.

Yeovil's best chance of the half came shortly after Jordy Hiwula had put a header over the bar. The Manchester City loanee was desperately unlucky to see another close range header blocked by Conrad Logan. But Stephen Dawson almost made it 0-3 on the break when he fired wide with Rochdale players queuing up to score. It had been a dreadful half defensively, and no surprise to find a number of boos on the half time whistle.

It was no surprise to find Jakub Sokolik being replaced at half time, with the Czech Republic player having struggled in what has been a problematic right-back area. His place was taken by AJ Leitch-Smith, with Kevin Dawson taking on the full-back position, whilst Jordy Hiwula moved to a right-wing position, with Leitch-Smith going up front. Rochdale almost extended their lead within a few minutes of the restart, with Artur Krysiak making a flying save to keep out Ian Henderson.

However, it only took eight minutes before they fell further behind. A cross from Matt Done allowed Ian Henderson to convert with a close range header to remove any chance of a comeback for the Glovers, and to give Rochdale a 0-3 advantage. It could have got worse after a Stephen Dawson cross was put into the box, but when the ball was pulled back across the goal, Ian Henderson found a linesman's offside flag denying him his hat-trick.

Another attempt to shake the team up came when James Hayter - who has started three games in eight days - had his legs saved for the closing stages of the match, with Sam Foley moving up front as Nathan Smith came on for the final 20 minutes. He forced Conrad Logan into one of his few second half saves, in what was a slightly more even closing stage to the game, but one in which you sensed Rochdale were merely playing out time and happy to just close down any unlikely chance Yeovil may have had of worrying the scoreline. In truth Yeovil were comfortably beaten from the 16th minute of the match onwards, and with them having gone six games now without a win, both results and performances certainly need a radical shift in the direction they are currently going in.